I was talking recently to a Christian friend of mine who is suffering a lot from poor health. He was lamenting how little he is accomplishing for God, and I think it would be fair to say that he viewed his life at the present time as a failure in God’s sight.
I took, and still
take, a very different view on what this man is achieving for God. It is
certainly true that he is restricted in what he can do. However, he does what
he can. He is able to help other people in various little ways, like by walking
their dogs, and I think God is very pleased and glorified by all this.
Matthew 10:40-42
When we turn to the
Bible, we find the Lord Jesus speaking very highly of little acts of kindness.
One key passage is
Matthew 10:40-42, where Jesus says:
‘40 Whoever
receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41
The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s
reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous
person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives
one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple,
truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.’ (ESV)
The first two verses of this passage refer to ‘receiving’
various people: apostles, Jesus, God, prophets and righteous people. In this
context to receive a person must mean to welcome that person positively and to
act so as to benefit or please them.
In verse 40 ‘you’ refers firstly to Jesus’ 12 apostles,
as Matthew 10:5 makes clear. So this verse is saying that to receive an apostle
counts as receiving Jesus and God.
However, there is no doubt that receiving Christians
other than apostles would also count as receiving Jesus and God. Note how
verses 41 and 42 both refer to receiving or helping a wider group of Christians
than just the 12 apostles, and there should be no doubt that the principle in verse
40 should also be expanded to include Christians generally.
This means that when we do good to a fellow Christian, in
a real and deep sense there is a Godward dimension to what we are doing. We are
pleasing God Himself, and the importance of this can hardly be overstated.
We can note also that v. 41 tells us that when a
Christian receives a prophet or righteous person because that person is a
prophet or righteous person, that Christian will receive the reward due to the
prophet or righteous person. This is quite astonishing. Just welcoming a
Christian who is in one of these categories entitles the welcomer to the reward
due to the person in that category! Again, we can see that the value Jesus puts
on welcoming and helping fellow Christians is enormous.
Verse 42 also points firmly in the same direction.
In this verse ‘little ones’ is surely a reference to
Christians generally rather than to children. See how ‘little ones’ and
‘because he is a disciple’ refer to the same group of people. And children are
not mentioned in the context.
Note how Jesus goes out of His way in this verse to
describe the smallest possible gift. The recipient of the gift is not a group
of Christians but just one Christian. The gift is not wine but just water. The
amount of water is not a barrel but just a cup. And the water isn’t even heated
but is cold.
So in human terms this gift is minuscule. But Jesus is
adamant. Whoever gives a gift like this to a fellow Christian will in no way
lose his reward. Once again, we can see that the importance Jesus attaches to performing
little acts of kindness for fellow Christians is huge.
Helping non-Christians as well as Christians
The passage we have looked at teaches about the
importance of practical acts of help for fellow believers. And it is true that
we should normally prioritise helping fellow Christians over non-believers (Gal
6:10).
However, there is no doubt that God is also very pleased
by similar acts of kindness towards those outside the family of faith. In
Matthew 5:43-47 the Lord Jesus teaches how we should love even our enemies,
i.e., those who oppose us. If we should do good even to those who oppose us, it
is certainly right for us more generally to help non-Christians when they are
in need.
Pleasing God for eternity
As we have seen, God is pleased by acts of kindness, even
by ones that are humanly speaking very small.
It is helpful for us to try to grasp the magnitude of
what it means to please God. God is the Creator of time, dwelling outside time
and eternal. So if a human being pleases God in any way, the pleasure God
derives from that action is eternal. It will never fade away.
Therefore, if you or I perform an act of kindness to
someone, even a minor one, God is more pleased than He would be otherwise, and
He will remain more pleased eternally. It is a kind of infinite thing.
In view of this, let us renew our efforts to be the sort
of people who are often taking opportunities to help others with acts of
kindness.
See also:
Christians
Must Be Generous in Giving to the Poor
The
Importance of Sympathy and Empathy in Christian Living
